Govt hit with whopping bill for human rights violations in treason case

The Namibian government could have to fork out as much as US $11.6 million in compensation claims for alleged human rights violations linked to a long-running treason trial. Attorney General and Minister of Justice Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana told the National Assembly last week that 116 civil claims, averaging US $100,000 each, were pending against the state for alleged human rights abuses. Iivula-Ithana admitted some of the civil claims had merit, adding there was "documented and discernible proof of physical abuse by way of pictorial evidence and medical records". The government has already paid out US $500,000 in similar claims. The alleged abuse stems from the government's attempt to stamp out a secessionist movement in Western Caprivi, a barren semi-arid strip of land in northeastern Namibia. In August 1999 Caprivi separatists launched an attack on the regional capital Katima Mulilo that left 12 people dead. Around 130 people have been in custody for six years, and on trial for over three. The accused are claiming compensation for alleged unlawful arrest and detention, malicious prosecution, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Iivula-Ithana told parliament: "It is conceivable that those who may be acquitted at the end [of the trail process] will seek to amend their claims by increasing amounts claimed for unlawful detention and/or malicious prosecution." The alleged secessionists are also being defended at huge cost to the public after the Supreme Court ordered that they all be granted legal assistance by the government. The civil cases have been instituted by the Human and Constitution Litigation Union (HCLU), a Windhoek-based non-profit Legal Assistance Centre. According to Toni Hancox, HCLU coordinator, the claims were based on what her organisation considered to be reasonable amounts. "There is no precedence for such cases in Namibia and we did not have anything to look back to when the claims were made," she said. "The trial is aimed at bringing about a judicial answer to what is unmistakably a political question. Moreover, the trial is likely to result in long-term imprisonment and martyrdom, as well as deepened hatred and trauma on the part of the alleged secessionists, their families and their tribesmen for many years to come," commented Phil ya Nangoloh, the executive director of Namibia's National Society for Human Rights. He said the run-up to the trial exposed gross human rights violation on the part of the government, which included indiscriminate torture of suspects. Some of the detainees were not even linked to the alleged secessionists, he added. "Our records show that 70 percent of the suspects in detention didn't take part in the secession attempts, but are just there because of belonging to the same families with those that participated or having been supporters of the opposition," said ya Nangoloh.